The Sixteenth Day of April.

Saint Optatus

The 16th of April is the Holy Father's Birthday, on that day the Martyrology of the Latin Church commemorates the following saints.

At Saragossa, in Spain, the birthday of eighteen holy martyrs, Optatus, Lupercus, Successus, Martial, Urban, Julia, Quinctilian, Publius, Fronto, Felix, Cecilian, Eventius, Primitivus, Apodemius, and four others who are said to have been Saturninus. They were all tortured and slain together under Dacian, governor of Spain. The glory of their martyrdom has been celebrated in verse by Prudentius.

In the same city, the Saints Caius and Crementius, who twice confessed the faith of Christ, and persevering in it, drank of the chalice of martyrdom.

In the same place, the martyr St. Lambert.

Also at Saragossa, St. Encratis, virgin and martyr, whose body was lacerated , her breasts cut away, and her bowels torn out. Still alive after these torments, she was confined in prison until her body, covered with wounds, began to decompose.

And elsewhere in divers places, many other holy martyrs, confessors, and holy virgins.

R. Thanks be to God.

________from the Roman Martyrology.